Evaluación de la huella de agua por uso directo en la finca bananera “San Felipe”, cantón Pasaje, provincia El Oro

Abstract

Considering that less than 1% of the water present on the planet is for human consumption and that most of it is used for agricultural purposes, the care and management of water become the central axis to ensure its sustainability. Because of this problem and following what is promoted by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), this research project proposes to evaluate the water footprint of a banana farm, considering the entire production chain, and to propose an alternative that minimizes the evaluated water footprint. To meet the research objectives, a 6,18-hectare farm located in the city of Pasaje, which produces organic bananas for export, was used as a scenario. The study followed the guidelines contemplated in the ISO 14046:2014 standard, which is based on Life Cycle Analysis (LCA), and contemplates the impact due to scarcity following the AWARE methodology, the impact due to eutrophication using the ReCiPe method, and the impact due to Ecotoxicity using the USEtox methodology. In addition, the methodological guide for the water and carbon footprint in banana production was published by FAO. The results generated by the project show that the San Felipe farm consumes 7,4 m3 and degrades 0,467 m3 of water per 18.14 Kg box of bananas for export. Regarding the impacts evaluated, the impact due to eutrophication was 0,00365 Kg of phosphorus equivalent (Kg P e), the impact due to Ecotoxicity was 22,475 PAF.m3 . day or CTUe, while the impact due to scarcity was 4,44 m3 equivalent, the latter being the greatest impact calculated in the banana farm. Therefore, a water treatment and recirculation system were proposed as a minimization strategy, which consists of a coarse dynamic filter that will reduce the organic load and water demand, which is expected to be a great contribution for future research in the banana sector.